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Gatland believes All Blacks can be beaten

Date published: June 3 2016

Wales head coach Warren Gatland is of the opinion that the All Blacks are not entirely invincible, and they will look at New Zealand’s performance against Georgia, in last year’s World Cup, to understand that the three-time world champions can have an off day.

New Zealand battled to a hard fought 43-10 victory over Georgia at last year’s World Cup however they were made to work hard for the victory and they were taken by surprise in the opening few minutes by Georgia’s quick tempo play and physicality at the breakdown.

Wales know that New Zealand do not have a bad day often and it will require something extra special for these current group of players to rewrite the history books and record a first victory over the All Blacks, since 1953.

Gatland told the official Six Nations website that his team will look to match the current World Cup champions in every aspect of the game and they will not go down without a fight.

"It's going to be tough, but we're not here just to make up the numbers, and we're not here to start the rebuilding phase of New Zealand rugby either," Gatland said.

Gatland added that Wales can look at Georgia’s performance against the All Blacks at last year’s World Cup for inspiration.

"We've looked at when the All Blacks have been rusty and I've said to our players to have a look at the Georgia game at the World Cup in Cardiff.

"There were a lot of mistakes made and they were obviously ring-rusty. They got better as the tournament went along.

The first of three Test matches gets underway at Eden Park in Auckland on June 11 which is followed up with two more matches in Wellington on June 18 and Dunedin on June 25.